Invitation to Change

This is the World Race.
I told my team today during a meeting that I have enjoyed watching them work this month.
Most of them come alive when we step into our small community called Karlangan.
And the amazing thing is, we all come alive in different ways.
So here's a small taste of what our days are filled with.
I hope you enjoy watching a little taste of my team coming alive.
My favorite part of every day is at the end of the video.

Karlangan Kids from Margie Termeer on Vimeo.

Blog and Video By: Margie Termeer

Feeding of the 5,000: Emily

Feeding of the 5,000: Malu

Feeding of the 5,000: Naomi

Should This Be Reality???

As you may or may not know I am on an 11 month journey God has directed me to, I went with unsure answers but walked in faith. At this point I am in my third month. We have traveled to New Zealand, Australia and now I am in the Philippines. I love it here, each day I have a new adventure and story to tell. I have been heartbroken for the people and lives here. I have a few stories I would like to share with you to give you a glimpse of what we encounter here each day, that truly makes me burn for justice.

As I mentioned in my last blog, we have been doing a census here in the community, trying to connect with over 5,000 people. Every day we ask people what their immediate needs are, they respond with needs of water, food, vitamins and medicine. One family said they just wanted plates to eat their food, another said diapers for their new born baby, and the list goes on. Then we ask for prayer requests, person after person responded with asking for a better life. My heart sank and broke into pieces as I held back the tears. Most houses are made from anything they can find, scraps of old woods, medal and old signs. Holes invade their whole house-I am afraid for when it rains. How will they stay dry? The wires of electricity unsafely stream everywhere. This is what we walk into everyday, one day I was walking through sewage trying to get to some homes and I said to myself, " this is the worst I have seen", but as the day flew by I seemed to be hearing and seeing situations that seemed more hopeless then the next.

I met an eight year old girl named Roxanne. She has one leg and the other is prosthetic. The first encounter with her was with Michelle and David, she was hobbling home from school and they asked if they could carry her home. The prosthesis barley stays on and sits on an angel so her foot is twisted to the right at all times. A couple days ago Michelle and I decided to go see if she would like go to the swing set with us. We got the ok from her mom and carried her down to the set. As we were talking with her trying to get her to a crack smile, I started to think, " If it is for only one person I am here I will be honoured and blessed to serve and love" ( just like Angelica in Australia). We took her to get some ice cream, sat and ate it together, laughing as we smeared the ice cream across our lips as lipgloss. I asked Roxanne her favourite song and she began to sing Jesus loves me. I could not stop smiling; at that point I knew her hope was in Jesus. We brought her home and said our goodbyes and walked away. I kept my tears back, telling her we will come back to color with her soon. I truly believe God is a big God and wants something big to happen in her life. I am praying we can help her as the process is already in play for getting her a new leg. Please keep her in your prayers. This is reality for eight year old Roxanne. Where people, old and young stare at her and point. WE just love and encourage.

One afternoon as I arrived back from a specific village, I was broken and crying out to God. A team works there daily so I went to them to inquire more information. They began telling me a story about a blind eleven year old girl who cannot walk. She lives in a house alone, with her stepmom down the road. She sleeps on a plank of woods as her bed and lies there all day. If she has to go to the bathroom she just goes because there is no one to help her up. Most days they do not know if she eats or not. The team has invested time into her, speaking life and love into her life. A nurse has come to look at her, and they have brought her back to the place we are staying to give her a real bath and clean her up. This is another story that makes me angry and I stand wondering why. I trust this team is doing the best they can. Please pray and ask God to keep intervening to give her a better life. This is reality for this blind eleven year old girl. Abandoned and forgotten.

Another ministry a group is doing is under a bridge where over 100 families live. Families, babies and children living in the garbage dump. They have nothing, each day they dig through the garage hoping to find metal or copper so they can sell it for a little money. Eight years old kids sniff glue so the hunger pains go away. They have been there since the flood in October. They sleep on old piece of carpet or cardboard; they have no water to keep clean, no food, nothing. I wonder why them as anger and frustration boil over inside. This is their home, their reality.

I hope these stories just give you a glimpse of what we see and hear each day. It is not easy coming back to a bed, food and a shower each night, knowing many do not have what we have. It is sad that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. What would happen if the rich invested into the poor? One day we hitch hiked home and a young man picked us up (do not worry we were safe). We hopped into his nice car and he drove us home. He was talking to us with perfect English keeping a good conversation and as he dropped us off he said he lived down the street from where we lived. I wonder how someone can live here without noticing the poverty and do nothing about it. It seemed as if he just closed his eyes and pretended it was not there.

Imagine this; you're in the line for the ATM machine. This time the line is long but you notice people acting weird when they get to the front. When you approach the front of the line you see an eight year old boy passed out from alcohol right before the ATM. What has been happening this entire time is people see the boy, step over him to get to the ATM, finish their business and walk away. How would you react? What would you do?



This story happened to one of the ministry workers here in the Philippines. As he approached the boy, he picked him up; made sure he was breathing and brought him to the police to contact his parents. Before this act everyone ignored the boy, as if this was normal but when did something like this become normal?

Please be praying. This is reality for many but the question is- should this be reality? Should this be normal? Living in the garbage dump, being walked over, living in homes no bigger than our bathrooms as nine people sleep there, being abandoned blind at the age of eleven, sniffing glue to take away the hunger pain at age eight. Having no education, water, plates to eat off of, the list just goes on. THIS IS NOT OK and not suppose to be normal. Please be praying and lift these situations up to God. Pray from the depth of who you are, with passion and fight for justice, intercede for these lives with me.

I am humbled, broken, blessed to serve here in Cainta, Manila. As for prayer requests please lift me up whenever you think about me; each day seems to get harder, battling with the hard unknown answers of injustice.

Written By: Charlotte Clark

Feeding of the 5,000: Paul

Feeding of the 5,000: Evelyn

How I Ended Up on Stage in Front of 600 Chinese-Filipinos

When I woke up this morning I had no idea I would be on stage at a high school speaking to 600 Chinese students and their parents. Thus is life on the World Race. Fortunately, I love random so I was thrilled with today's outcome. Let me work backwards and explain how I got here.



I have started helping with a local magazine called the Jeepney a couple days a week. The Jeepney is a street magazine, modeled similarly to homeless newspapers sold in many major cities in the U.S. The concept is inspirational-it is a magazine featuring local homeless, raising awareness of issues facing the multitudes of Filipinos living in poverty. It is then sold by homeless vendors as a way for them to make an income and support their families.

The Jeepney office is located on the property we are living at, so it was a natural fit for World Racers to start pitching in. We have opportunities to help with everything from photography to graphic design to editing and layout to promoting, and more. I have been working with a few other girls to promote the magazine and search for homeless people on the streets that want to sell the magazine as a source of income. This morning we left for Chinatown at 6:30 am to assist with some street promoting. We visited Chinatown once last week. While promoting the magazine Jeanne and I ran into a firecracker named Annie, a spirited Chinese woman in her early 50's. Actually, she found us. She approached us and asked if we were tourists. She seemed alarmed and told us it was not safe for us to be in Chinatown walking around by ourselves. We assured her we had a local assisting us nearby. We explained to her why we are in the Philippines and then told her all about the Jeepney magazine. Then we parted ways.


We learned later that Annie sent a text message to the Jeepney a couple hours after our encounter saying "I met a couple young Caucasian women in Chinatown today and I want to help them". This morning when we went back we contacted her on the off chance she would have some tips for us. She was available and offered to meet with us. She gave us some great insight into the area from a local perspective and directed us to an area she felt would be our target market. A couple hours later through an amazing series of events, which I will spare you, Annie managed to get us on stage at an assembly at her children's high school, where students and parents were gathered for their final day of school. Had we continued street marketing this morning we would have only contacted a handful of people, but thanks to the help of a complete stranger who was willing to sacrifice half her day to help us we were able to reach hundreds and encourage them to support the local homeless community. Annie also invited us into her home and offered us a place to stay if we ever return to the Philippines.

It's cool to see how God opens up opportunities sometimes. We got connected to Annie randomly on the street. We wouldn't have been able to get into the school if it weren't for her personal connections. If we had gone out any other day we couldn't have reached that audience because it was the very last day of school. Sometimes things add up way too much to be coincidence, even a skeptic like me must accredit days like today entirely to "a God thing".

Written By: Jillian Hensley


A copy of this article can be found at http://jillianhensley.theworldrace.org/?filename=how-i-ended-up-on-stage-in-front-of-600-chinesefilipinos&bookmark=true#comments

Feeding of the 5,000: Sarah

Feeding of the 5,000: Henson

Feeding of the 5,000: Cathy

No Longer Addicted to Rugby

“The first time I heard a kid say, ‘I’m addicted to rugby.’ I thought he actually meant the sport, but I later realized it was a drug similar to an adhesive that helped relieve hunger pangs.” said Courtney, a WR missionary and volunteer at The Children’s Garden (TCG).

The Children’s Garden takes 15-18 year old boys off from the streets, from under the freeway bridges, from within the dumps, and from the sewers to give them a hope and a future. Some of the boys parents have died or they chose to run away from home. Most have been on drugs since age 8. It’s not uncommon for their parents to put their kids on drugs and force them to beg for money for the family. Drugs were a way of control.

The Children’s Garden picks up these kids and immediately puts them on a drug rehab program. Then, the teens would gain job training skills in welding and woodworking, learn karate, and attend Bible studies.

Keturah, a WR missionary and a volunteer at TCG, says that her greatest joy is being able to see their lives change. She says, “It‘s been amazing being able to connect with them because we have more in common that they or I would‘ve thought.” Kim, one of the boys in the program, says that his parents have been dead for years, but through the program, he’s gotten off the streets, quit drugs, and now wants to be a missionary. Kim’s life testifies that life can be different for all the boys from what they‘ve known. His life testifies that God indeed does have a hope and a future for all their lives.

Written By: Christine Louie　

Feeding of the 5,000: Derek

Feeding of the 5,000: Tom

Feeding of the 5,000: Juliana

Feeding of the 5,000: Introduction

In the middle of February, a team of 11 youth and adult chaperons from Hong Kong came to minister to the Cuatro Community where Kids International Ministries is located. The pastor and leader of the trip, Nathan, has put together some videos of their time here. Today's video will be the introduction, and each day for the next 11 days will tell one of the team member's testimony. I hope you enjoy seeing how God is working in the Cuatro Community.

Three More Signs of the Invisible Hand

Healings happening. People coming to know Jesus. A feeding program thriving. Then, comes

Three more signs.

Through

Three more people.

Emily. Rose. Gina.

Emily found my team and invited us into her home as soon as we arrived in Ramaville. She shared with us that her husband use to play the guitar for the church and that he wants to play for us. She asked to have a Bible study at her home. She said she was going to talk to the owners of one of the buildings so that we can host church services there. Her prayer request was that God would send workers, instruments, and a building so that they can have a church in the community.

There is a thirst for fellowship.

Soon after we left Emily's place, Rose invited us into her home. She began to share with us her former involvement at church and how she wanted to have a Bible study in her home as well.

There is a hunger to know and be known by God.

After leaving Rose's home, we ran upon Gina. Gina had been a seminary student for two months and had once been committed to the way of Jesus.

There is an opportunity to serve. An opportunity for a revival of the Spirit.

The first three people we met that morning were the few Christians in that entire community yet in those encounters we recognized the continuing confirmation of God's desire to plant a church there.

Written By: Christine Louie

A version of this article appeared on March 5, 2010, at www.christinelouie.theworldrace.org.

Modern Day Miracles

We went to do home visits in the morning to listen to the stories of the families that suffered from the typhoon to learn about their lives, to take a needs assessment to see what aid we could provide, and to offer prayer for any requests and petitions they had. My team split up into two groups with Brook, Jake, Margie, and Pastor Ray in one group and with John, Emily, Pastor Jun and me in the other group.
One of the homes that Brook's group visited was the home of Linda, Ann, and Mercy. After they spent some time talking, Linda and Ann shared their prayer needs including good health and financial provisions. This was very common in the families we visited because they were malnourished and had no medical care at all. Moreover, many of them were unable to find jobs. Mercy, however, said that her one request was to get into heaven. What? Of the many things she could've asked for, she wanted to know the certainty of her eternity. That team explained to her that it's never about doing things to be "good" enough to get into heaven, but that her faith and trust in Jesus would be the key to the present and eternal freedom of her spirit. She invited Jesus into her life.*

My team was going around different homes for visitations when a woman named Ana, who we had never met before, pops out of her house and tells us to come in. We see a man of at least 40 years old lying on the floor curled up next to the door. Ana explained to Pastor Jun that he was her brother, Fernando. Fernando has been having stomach pains for the past twelve days. He has been in so much pain that he hasn't been able to go to work, which was also a huge problem since he was the bread winner between the two siblings that lived together. He could not walk and could hardly move. We asked him to put his hand on his stomach and we laid hands on top of that hand and prayed for his healing in Jesus name. We didn't know if anything happened to him or to anyone else we had prayed for that day. The next day, I was leading a study of Ruth with the women in the community and Ana, Fernando's sister, declared that her brother was fully healed. She asked for the group to pray that her brother would know Jesus. The very next day after that as my group was leaving for lunch from the home visits, Fernando ran into my team as he was walking to town and tells us that not only is he healed, but that he has invited Jesus into his life.

I never know where God is going to take me or my team next. I can never predict what He is going to do. I just know that his heart is always in pursuit of our hearts and our freedom.

Written By: Christine Louie

A version of this article appeared on March 4, 2010, at www.christinelouie.theworldrace.org.